Sexual intercourse that people engage in before marriage is called premarital sex. The term is mostly referred to while referencing young people who are grown up and matured adults and who will have the inclination to get married, but prefer to engage in sexual activities before they get married. Different, cultures and countries look at premarital sex in different ways depending upon their prevailing views whether such acts can be viewed as being moral and acceptable by society. Some cultures have no issues with the practice and consider pre-marital sex an optional activity that is engaged in by adults with the consent of each other. There are several cultures that entirely disapprove of premarital sex and view the practice as entirely immoral.
The issue of whether premarital sex should be acceptable or not has now become a matter of intense debate. Teenagers and couples that are planning to get married have to make a decision whether to go ahead with sex before marriage. A loving relationship often heads towards this direction and if the culture of a country is liberal, premarital sex is taken as a natural phenomenon. From a positive angle, premarital sex becomes a matter of pleasure and the satisfaction of sexual desires when it is accepted by one’s peers. If viewed negatively, the practice is seen as immoral and brings in feelings of guilt and the apprehension of pregnancy and contracting of sexual diseases (Bell, 1967).
A major consideration while debating the issue of premarital sex is the question of safety. It is known that almost half the HIV-positive people in the world are between the age of 15 and 24. Most of the people who indulge in premarital sex do not care about its emotional consequences. Sex is the most powerful instinct of human beings and is more of an emotional experience since it influences our lives in manners that we usually do not comprehend. Once a couple engages in premarital sex there are chances that they will have feelings of embarrassment, mistrust, anger, disrespect, worry, and guilt. Thinking of sex as a natural activity and as a gift of God, one is bound to realize the love of God in making the activity pure and a means to experience love and emotions. Surely God does not want that humans should suffer from unwarranted emotional pain.
Sex is undoubtedly exciting and full of pleasure because God has devised it in this way. The Bible talks about sex being planned by God for married people to get pleasure and stimulation from sexual relationships. The Bible views premarital sex as adultery and ordains that all those who indulge in premarital sex will have to face the Day of Judgment. Although God provided for sex to be full of excitement, pleasure, and fun, it is clear that sexual activity is confined only within the institution of marriage (Ericksen et al, 1999).
The question then arises as to why such restrictions have been imposed in the religious texts in regard to premarital sexual relationships. In God’s viewpoint, sex is not to be understood as a means of entertainment but for reproduction whereby married couples can have a healthy relationship and create offspring. God does not permit premarital sex so as to prevent pregnancies that are unwanted and which pave way for the indulgence of other immoral activities such as abortions. In the modern world, opponents of premarital sex proclaim that if sex is limited between married couples there will be no sexually transmitted infections, no unmarried mothers, no undesired pregnancies, and no abortions.
References
- Bell Robert R, Premarital Sex in a Changing Society, 1967, Prentice Hall
- Ericksen Julia, Steffen Sally, Kiss and Tell: Surveying Sex in the Twentieth Century, 1999, Harvard University Press